Gunmen opened fire at Haiti's General Hospital in Port-au-Prince on the event date just as journalists, police and medical staff had gathered for a briefing to announce the reopening of the country's biggest public hospital. At least three people were killed, including two journalists and a police officer, while others were injured. The violence turned what should have been a public-health milestone into another display of how deeply armed groups can still shape daily life in Haiti's capital.
The hospital had only recently been recaptured by the Haitian government in July after being occupied and destroyed by gangs. The briefing was meant to signal that the institution was coming back into service, but the attack made the reopening story secondary to the security failure surrounding it. Pictures posted online appeared to show injured and dead people inside the building, a grisly visual reminder that even a hospital is not protected from the city's armed conflict.
The Viv Ansanm gang alliance, which controls much of Port-au-Prince, later claimed responsibility. Robest Dimanche, a spokesman for the Online Media Collective, said journalists Markenzy Nathoux and Jimmy Jean were killed. Police spokesman Lionel Lazarre told AFP that an officer also died. The source material describes the scene as one in which journalists were waiting for the arrival of Health Minister Lorthe Blema when the shooting began, meaning the attack landed directly on a ceremony that was supposed to mark recovery rather than breakdown.
Leslie Voltaire, head of Haiti's presidential transitional council, expressed sympathy for the victims' families and promised the attack would not go unanswered. That response matters because the transitional government is already under enormous pressure to show it can restore basic order. Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, gang violence has escalated sharply, and the BBC report says an estimated 85% of Port-au-Prince remains under gang control. In that context, the hospital attack was both a killing and a message about who can still move freely in the city.
The broader background is grim. The UN says as many as 5,000 people have been killed in violence in Haiti this year alone, while a Kenyan-led international force struggles to help the local police hold territory and protect institutions. The report notes that despite the new transition government formed in April and the foreign deployment six months ago, people continue to live with unbearable levels of gang violence. The attack on the General Hospital therefore did more than halt a reopening ceremony. It underlined how hard it remains to rebuild even the most basic public services when armed groups can strike at will.
For Haiti's journalists and medical workers, the scene carried a double trauma: people came to cover a reopening and instead became part of the casualty list. That combination of symbolism and bloodshed helps explain why the attack drew such immediate outrage. A hospital reopening should have been a story about the return of care. Instead, on 24 December 2024, it became another chapter in the country's long emergency.
That single attack on a reopening briefing is what made the hospital shooting so alarming: it struck the very moment a public service was supposed to resume. In a city battered by gang violence, even a health announcement became a target.
